RAW After Mania (March 21st, 1994) – Welp… This Sucked.

Wrestlemania X has been lauded as one of the better Wrestlemanias ever produced, featuring a highly praised ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon, as well as Bret Hart bookending the show with a loss to his brother Owen in a fantastic match and eventually usurping the WWF Champion Yokozuna to reclaim the title that was stolen from him a year ago… everything in between those things is left to the imagination, but clearly, after a show with many milestones, how do you follow this show up?

With a shitty episode of RAW, of course!

Again, we’re still in the hour-long territory, but this also felt like a chore to sit through. The matches weren’t all that great… The Quebecers (the former Mountie and the current PCO) defeated the Bushwhackers in a boring match, Tatanka (BUFFALO!) squashes some job guy, Diesel also squashes some job guy in a match joined in progress, and Jeff Jarrett beat Koko B. Ware… not quite inspiring stuff.

Only thing noteworthy on this show is Bret Hart’s first interview as WWF Champion, where he talks about the night starting off poorly and ended great before addressing his loss to Owen. Other than that… eh, this wasn’t very good.

Zelda Classic Is Still A Thing

Zelda Classic is still a thing… because they’re hosting a 20th Anniversary contest.

That’s amazing. It really is… and I’ve dabbled in Zelda Classic here and there. It’s a great game, a great port of the NES Legend Of Zelda, and there’s plenty of custom content that keeps that thing going strong. It is, for all intents and purposes, my preferred way of playing Zelda 1.
In a period where fan games based on Nintendo properties are C&D into oblivion, it’s nice to see that one of these fan efforts is not only still around, but still heavily supported to this day by the people developing the thing. The most recent version upgrades the engine further so that the gameplay can feel more like the later games.
Go check it out if you can, especially if you like your classic Zelda.

NWA 70th Anniversary (2019 PPV)

So this coronovirus thing is a big deal. Businesses are shutting down, large gatherings and sporting events are getting cancelled left and right, and a lot of the sources of entertainment are slowly but surely going away as a result. Naturally, pro wrestling is being affected by this pandemic, with many smaller groups postponing or outright cancelling shows. One of these promotions is Billy Corgan’s revived National Wrestling Alliance, which had cancelled a PPV and further TV tapings.

As a sort of consolation for the lack of Powerrr, the NWA posted their 70th Anniversary show for free on their Youtube channel. The show, originally airing October 21, 2018, featured the main event of Cody Rhodes, defending the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship against the man he beat for the title at All In the month prior, Nick Aldis, in a Best Of 3 Falls match. Also featured is the crowning of a new NWA National champion.

Sounds like fun… too bad I missed out the first time, but let’s take advantage of Billy’s generosity and give this a whirl, shall we?

Continue reading “NWA 70th Anniversary (2019 PPV)”

These WWE PPV Posters Suck

You know… I don’t want to do the whole “shit on WWE” thing here. I’d much rather be talking about other stuff that’s happier and shit… but why do these posters suck?

I mean, it’s just the four champions smiling and looking goofy with extra photo philtering shit. The whole thing looks awful from an artistic or layout standpoint. What is this supposed to convey? How is this supposed to get me excited for a bunch of idiots running through Titan Tower to grab a briefcase on the roof?

Oh, you didn’t know?

This year’s MiTB matches will feature jabronis running through WWE World Headquarters and making their way to the roof to grab a briefcase for a future title shot… which means they’re trashing the joint… this on a week where they needlessly fired a bunch of people.

Hey, it’ll be something different at least… and perhaps an excuse to have one of those “cinematic” matches that are all the rage. Quite frankly, though, I’ll probably watch something else that night… presumably a show that doesn’t have a shitty poster to promote it.

RAW After Mania (April 5th, 1993) – After Mania… A Canned Show

So this is a thing we’re doing for the foreseeable future… watching every RAW after Wrestlemania. I’d imagine I get a couple months of mileage before I get bored… and no, the fact that we’re doing this on 4/20 is not a coincidence. I probably took something to have thought up this idea… and I’d imagine it is going to be largely painful.

Funny thing about this RAW; whereas nowadays, these are usually treated as a big deal, the first RAW after Wrestlemania IX was a taped show from the previous taping cycle, so you don’t get the ramifications of the previous show until a couple episodes later. As such, other than passing mentions of the encore presentation of Wrestlemania, don’t expect much out of this show other than a couple quick matches here and there. In fact, the only recurring angle is the teasing of Jerry Lawler’s first WWF match, who comes out every so often, but then leaves after being overwhelmed by Burger King chants… because even back in 1993, the storylines (and the chants) weren’t much to be lauded over.

It’s an hour long show, but somehow feels longer because the matches are short, quick, and generally bad. Bam Bam Bigelow beats Virgil, Bob Backlund beats Kamala’s manager, Damien “Don’t Call Him A Jobber” Demento beats Jim Brunzell and nobody cares, the Steiners beat the Beverlies, and yes, Jerry Lawler beats some mulleted fellow in the main event.

So not a great show to follow up Mania… which is fine because Mania IX was not a great show to begin with. We’re still very early in this RAW show (it’s only a couple months old at this point) and they still haven’t worked out the kinks yet. Maybe next year’s follow-up to Mania will be better.